Unschooling Visitors to The Winona Farm March 1998 - May 2001

---

From March 'til June 1998 The Winona Farm had it's first unschooled visitor Sunny, she was totally unschooled but went to school twice with friends to see what she was missing. This in no way stood in her way when she wanted to study vetinary medicine; which is what she is now doing.


Madeleine, Sunny, Stephanie and Rhianon around a bull-calf, Dozy.


Carver petting a Tom turkey.
Carver visited the farm for two days with his Mom Dona. In the above photo he is bravely petting "Tom" the turkey. Tom had earlier knocked Carver down which must have been a frightening experience since he was so much heavier than Carver.

We had a visit from Jennifer for two days with her parents Dave and Elena, they enjoyed a ride back across the creek on the haywagon after Dave helped us load some bales of hay onto it.



Nathan, Justin, Rhianon, Ian and Madeleine on a pile of grindings with some goats.
Justin and Ian stayed here for almost two weeks with their Mom, Lois. The boys had a good time learning about composting and helping to look after animals.

Barb and her son Matt took a bus from PA and stayed here for over a week. Matt found that away from the city he had more freedom and room to move to burn up some of his energy and climbed the hill several times.

Margaret, a girl that Sunny had met at "The Not Back to School Camp" visited for a little over a week, she really seemed to enjoy the company of young children and spent a lot of time with my little ones and another visiting family.


Misha, Kestin, Margeret, Madeleine, Stephanie, Rhianon and Jaimie.
Kestin, Misha & Jaimie stayed on the farm for almost five weeks with their Mom Julia. Nathan, Rhianon, Madeleine and Stephanie experienced their first American Halloween and went "Trick or Treating" with Julia and her children.



Leo and Rose feeding calves.
Leo stayed for a week with Rose; his unschooling facilitator. Leo's Mom Sue brought them here and upon her return spent a night in the cabin with Lou before their journey home.

Katrina and her children Elsbeth, Ellie and Evan came for a short visit, and Rhianon is still waiting for the day when they return so she can take Evan to climb the hill. They brought pet bunnies for the girls and returned home with some newly hatched ducklings.

A friend of mine from our old homeschooling group back in Brisbane Australia came to visit us here on the farm. They were living in Texas working in the computer industry and took time out to come North. Eleanor and her childen Karl, Ruth, Eden, Jordan and Sean spent a couple of weeks here, Rhianon was especially happy to meet some old friends and she and Ruth spent a lot of time together.

Nora, Richard, Kerry and Ginny who live about an hour's drive away visited one rainy day. They gave us three Cochin roosters, who now have many descendants here on the farm. On another visit they gave us a peahen, who along with a male we bought now live across the valley where they raised three young. On their second visit they stayed for a couple of hours and the kids all had a good time together playing on a rope swing in the barn.

The Giraud family; Grandma Irene, Dad Guillaume [Bill], Mom Chrisitne and children Kevin, Sophie and Carmen from Belguim stayed here for one night. They packed as much as they could into their short visit and I'm sure if they had the time they would have loved to stay longer. Kevin and Sophie really enjoyed helping feed the animals and collect the eggs. Carmen who was only about 20 months old didn't let language get in the way of making friends, it is wonderful the way very small children make their desires known without having to speak your language. The Girauds were on their second visit to the USA and told how much nicer it is to be staying in people's homes and getting to meet other homeschoolers rather than being in motels. Apparently there are only 10 homeschooling families in all of Belgium.

A family who had been living in China for a while dropped in for one night Liz, Doug, Mackenzie and Mickey stayed here on their way to visit family, and hope to return for a few days when they are not feeling jet lagged.

Henry, Rhianon, Madeleine, Frank, Sam and Stephanie with Muddy our Alpine Buck.

Sam, Henry and Frank with their Mom Alice from Maine stopped in for two nights on their cross country trip. They stayed with several other unschooling families during their journey.

Here are Evan and Nick on their first visit helping Nathan bottle feed the calves.

Beth, Blanche, Stephanie, Nick, Evan and Madeleine riding across the creek on compost in the spreader.

Blanche with her children Chaz and Evan and their friend Beth with her son Nick have visited the farm several times. Chaz has stayed on at the farm after they all returned home a couple of times and has traveled here alone on the train a few times. Three times Rhianon has gone back to Chicago to stay with Chaz and her family to experience city life. The girls have traveled together on the train and last time Rhianon came home alone on the train.

Chaz and Rhianon near the chicken coop.



Jed, Kimberly, Joppa, Promise and Noah from Alaska visited last winter. Kimberly spent a lot of her childhood in an Eskimo villiage and while originally not from there, identifies strongly with Alaska. They were here to visit Jed's family in Minneapolis and came to the farm to help preserve themselves from city induced madness. They were a great help in cleaning up an area which we just never seem to get to, making some future building work easier. They brought along a video of their home in Alaska which we enjoyed watching with them.

Nina [a college student doing paper on Unschooling] visited for three weeks. She was a big help with many of our daily tasks and spent many hours with the girls. At one stage I heard her using a "teacher's voice" with Stephanie when playing cards and told her about it later, pointing out that it's very hard for an adult to not speak to children in that manner because as children we learn that this is the voice you use when explaining things to those younger and smaller than oneself. I didn't hear that tone again. It was really good having Nina here but in a small way she interfered with the dynamics of the girls relationships. It was not a permanent change so it ended up being a good thing as the girls were able to evaluate how they treat each other and why they do the things they do. The incident was over Rhianon asking Stephanie to carry her rocks back from the creek, Nina asked Rhianon "Why can't you carry them?" so Stephanie refused to carry them, which is unusual because normally she likes to do little things for Rhianon. We talked about it and I said to Stephanie "You like to help people don't you?" She said that she did and I asked if she liked carrying Rhianon's rocks for her and she answered enthusiastically that she does. I asked her why she likes to do things for Rhianon and she told me that "Rhianon likes to help me, when I was sick one night she made a bed for me on a mattress on the floor and when I didn't like to sleep on it alone she made a bed on the sofa and sat with me while I went to sleep." I was pleased that she was able to verbalize why she likes to do things for her sister and the incident with Nina and the rocks became a positive event instead of the negative thing it could have been.
We all hope that Nina will return one day.

---

We charge a small amount for Homeschoolers who wish to stay in the cabin or shack, but for those who stay in the apartment all we ask is a couple of hour's help each day with whatever activities we are pursuing. The rest of the time is yours to explore the farm from down low in the valley where you will discover two crystal clear trout streams with numerous beaver dams, along the trails to the marshy areas with several ponds teaming with wildlife, then on to the fields to see sheep and goats contentedly grazing and foraging through the brush brought by composters, cows munching away on grass clippings from town while the pigs make themselves a comfortable bed in the dry leaves or wallow in the pond near the barn, you may see a cluck with her chicks and Canada geese with their goslings nearby. Fly a kite on the open grassy fields or climb the 600ft hill and see the Mississippi River in the distance.

Even the youngest child can feel a part of what is happening here, they can help Stephanie, Madeleine and Rhianon collect the eggs and during the summer incubating them too. They can help feed and care for the newly hatched chicks. Many visiting children have learned how to milk a goat, this is something they seem to take a lot of pride in. When we have calves that are being bottle reared Nathan enlists the help of visitors and shows them the right way to hold the bottle. With the simple tasks children participate in, they feel good knowing that they can contribute in some very real ways.

We very much enjoy having unschooling visitors and I believe that we gain a little insight from each person / family that we meet. If you are an unschooled or homeschooled person / family or think that you would like to live for a while with an unschooled family to see help you see how children can learn free of the structured methods of school or "school at home" email Sue or Dick and we will see if there is a time when you could visit.

---

More visitors.
Latest visitors.
Back to the index.